Courtesy of John Stanmeyer

In what will become a multi-month series, I’ll try to demystify the experience, sharing insight and nuances on how such long-term projects originate until the magazine arrives in your mail slot, starting now with a latest story I’m about to begin for National Geographic.

I’ve met and befriended John during his visits to Indonesia in recent years, and he has, on many occasions, shared some tidbits and interesting anecdotes of his daily passings, intrigued by the nature of the stories, I made a little suggestion that he should publish a weblog and write about it.

So he did.

He opens his doors to an otherwise insiders-only details on the often-asked question of “What is it like shooting for the National Geographic Magazine?“. While dreams can be big and impressions, bigger, like many real things in life, it “is not always what we might think.”, he said.

Go grab a cup of coffee. Your day is going to be exciting.